According to a Jan. 26 report by the college’s student newspaper, The Flat Hat,the college will have to pay more than $500,000 to replace keys and lock cores in numerous campus buildings after its set of master keys went missing last semester.

The keys gave William and Mary employees access to a number of campus buildings, including Greek houses and all residence halls except one. For security reasons, the Department of Facilities Management has started replacing 3,000 lock cores in affected dorms this semester, The Flat Hat reports.

The bulk of the loss comes from the re-core project, which will cost the college $399,444, according to The Flat Hat. Twenty electronic master key storage boxes will also be installed in order to prevent any future incidents. According to the newspaper, those boxes will cost the college $162,346, bringing the total cost for the project to $561,790.

Students will be required to return their old keys, which will then be sold as surplus for other organizations to use or recycled as scrap metal.

Originally the project was expected to be completed over winter break, but delays caused it to extend into the spring semester. Because the schedule is dependent on an external contractor, there is no projected completion date, according to The Flat Hat.

“The plan is to work Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. systematically through one hall at a time,” said Gregg Shipp, director of operations and maintenance for the college’s Department of Facilities Management, in an email to The Flat Hat.

Daniel Funke is a USA TODAY College digital producer and a University Georgia student.